Since the Big Sur marathon was postponed due to COVID-19 till November 15, 2020 (and I'm really hoping that happens). I decided to go ahead and run my 26.2 miles as planned except 1 week later. The original date of the race was April 26. However, since I had been recovering from my spill at MS50, I ran my 26.2 miles the following weekend on May 2, 2020.
AND guess what? I didn't have to do it ALONE!! I have a group of running friends that call themselves the PPRF group, Peer Pressure Running Friends, in which one of them ran a "virtual" Boston marathon (her Boston has been postponed till September 15, 2020) 2 weekends prior to me running my "virtual" Big Sur. We had all discussed going ahead and running a "virtual" in our group messages. Two of the girls mentioned running part of my 26.2 miles with me. I was excited to have someone want to run at least half the distance with me. But boy did they surprise me!! They both ended up doing the full 26.2 miles with me! We had a great morning! We did my intervals .. jog 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. We all felt great and the temperature was prefect. I had decided to do two 13.1 mile loops just in case anyone wanted to stop after 13.1 miles. Plus I had only went to 16 miles recently and wasn't sure how my leg would hold up for 26.2 miles so soon after my little injury.
We finished the first loop and went to our vehicles and refueled, etc. We even talked to a couple of bikers and other runners that were at the rest stop and I asked one of my biker friends, Drew, to take our picture. Here we are right before starting our 2nd loop. Notice we have on our pineapple shirts from our trip to Hawaii back in 2018 for the Kona Marathon! I should have grabbed my orange shirt and then we would of all been exactly alike.
Michelle, Me & Candy
And yes we did all start getting tired by that mile 20. 😀 Plus it was starting to get very HOT. But we pressed on making our way slowing but surely. 😁 Michelle had mentioned there was a gas station that we could stop at like 2 miles before our cars coming back in. We laughed and joked about getting a Corona beer to take a picture since we were running during the Corona Virus (COVID-19). We got so pumped up talking about it that we were so excited to get to mile 24 to stop at the gas station. We went be-bopping into the store only to find they did NOT sell beer!! We were shocked! So instead we bought chips, cokes, and I got a snickers. We walked the last 2 miles completely (no jog intervals) as we drank and ate our snacks. My watch said a finish time of 5:39 ... which wasn't bad with all the walking we did, but I will have to admit that much more time elapsed because we stopped our watches when we stopped for bathroom breaks and at the half way point where we chatted with friends and refueled. We could not have done that in a "real" race. 😀 the time would have kept on rolling. Which if we had been in a real race, we would not have stopped so much to fill our own water bottles, etc. There would have been aid stations. 😃
Here's a few of our pictures from our 26.2 mile run on the Trace in Hattiesburg.
I'm glad I went ahead and did a "virtual" during this COVID-19 era, it's refreshing to be able to get outside and do something that makes you feel good. Plus the outdoors is good for the soul. My friends even texted me the next day saying how they were not sore much at all and thought it was the intervals. They said they may have to do them more often. They couldn't believe that I have done intervals for several marathons. Hal always says you can work your intervals and still have a good time on a marathon if you work at it. The walk breaks gives this old body a little break and helps me recover faster. 😍
AND let me just say again... I have GREAT friends! They were not even registered for the Big Sur marathon and yet they came and gave up half their day to run with me! They are AMAZING! I can't imagine doing life without my PPRF friends!
We didn't have any medals for pictures so we took a picture of our shoes and fuel belts. LOL
Thanks to Run the Edge for their challenges during this COVID time. This week theme was Courage!
Oh and I had to stop for gas on the way home so I couldn't resist grabbing a Corona for a pic. 😊
We sure are praying the fall races will happen! If not there is going to be many more "virtual" marathons! We won't be stopped even during this..... 😎
